How often do you click an online ad, and how often do you update your browser? These two questions, while seemingly unrelated, actually have a lot to do with one another. The Chitika Insights team looked to quantify this phenomenon by focusing on Internet Explorer, and examining the differences in click-through-rate (CTR) based on version number.

Being the default browser for Windows, Internet Explorer (IE) is the software through which the majority of North American Web users view the Internet (we counted close to 123 million impressions in one week for our sample). Interestingly, there was a near-direct relationship between CTR and version number, with users of the latest IE versions clicking at significantly higher rates than users of older versions. Why could this be the case?

  • The latest version of IE ships with new Windows machines
  • Heavier Internet users (much less likely to click on ads as a whole) are likely to seek out alternative options for Web browsing like Chrome or Firefox

Despite the rise of non-IE browsing options, these statistics show that marketers should have IE firmly in mind when optimizing websites and ads in order to maximize CTR and get the “most bang for their buck” online.

Stay tuned to future reports from Chitika Insights where we’ll continue to examine what impacts CTR across the Web.

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